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Friday, April 9, 2010

More Lead Belly - Last Sessions 4 Disc Set

Sorry,I've been busy trying to earn a living and trying toalso find this 4 disc set online.Well it took a while but Ifinally found it,and purchased a copy to share. This isjust what it says, Lead Belly's last sessions ever, from 1948,a year before his death. He was a remarkable talent, and hehad a large repertoire of folk songs and popular songs eitherhe made up or songs he learned from others and kept thesong alive,by playing it live or recording it.It's a little likehe absorbed the songs from other musicians,and added hissongs,wrote his own songs as well. A great interpreter!This series of discs will show a wide range of songs he did.These songs were also his first tracks recorded on magnetictape,which was a brand new technology at the time!The new audio tape recording process will also give betterdynamics to his voice and guitar playing,since those olderfield recordings were not up to snuff.Lead Belly was a great interpreter of songs,these 4 discs giveyou,dear music fanatic,almost his entire repertoire of music.These recordings were done over a three night "recording session".These recordings are also significant as,they were madequite simply, as if he is just sitting around the house.Not just anyone;'s house either, at Frederic Ramsey Jr's house,who was and became the co-author/editor of Jazzman,The JazzRecord Book,Jazzways.And editor of the Folkways JazzSeries.He was also the 1953 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowshipfor studies in Afro-American music. These recordings are notprofessionally made,but recorded like a music interview. He talksabout the music,how it relates to his own life, and theserecordings are not edited in any way! When these sessionswere finally committed to vinyl,they were not separated bysong bands, they were put out exactly as they were recorded.The only company that would agree to do this wasMoses Asch's Folkways Records. Which was a labeldedicated to documenting folk music,old and new.Lead Belly did a record for Folkways Records in 1941.This project, was also incomplete,as Lead Belly died before,the full recordings of his repertoire were captured.There was still more music in him!Lead Belly died of the same disease that killed Lou Gehrig,and it wasn't caught in time,he was at the latter stages ofchronic poliomyelitis when he died on December 6th,1949.Lead Belly aka Huddy Ledbetter 1888? -1949.I sure hope fans of Mojo Repair Shop like this!

20 comments:

this is pretty awesome... i didnt even know these recordings exist!wow, thanks a lot, i sure so love this new ledbetter stuff. i think this is rather a historical document than music, i just cant wait to listen to it!

Hello! I Absolutely LOVE Your Site & Want To Thank You For All The Great Music. I Was Wondering,If You Get The Chance,To RE-Post "The Kinks Secret Sessions". It Would Be Greatly Appreciated!Til Then,Continued Success To You! All My Best Dan

I've been busy doing other things...this blog is not dead,yet. I'm just not into it,right now,sorry,kids. Once I get something to motivate me to write,like some great music,I'll post it,right away. Lately I've just been busy doing other writing projects,and stuff. Hang in there.Mojo Repair Shop

My favorite collection of songs by Leadbelly for sure. The whole thing is so inviting - feels like your right there with him. Great post - i must get round to tracking a hardcopy down and i thank you for doing so that it could be shared with all of us. Best regards,Rich.

I've been really busy working on many projects,and also dealing with an illness.So when I can,I work hard on things,and half the time I am sick,with recurring issues.It's a struggle,because you gotta work to pay the bills,and even that is difficult,these days. I do miss not writing this blog,but I am contributing to other blogs,when I can. Sure I'd love to share more music,and I will most likely do this again,soon,if the economy would just pick up more,maybe I'd have more time to write on this blog...a lot of people are working like dogs,I'm no different. There's not enough hours in the day,to do everything I'd like to do. Thanks Glenn. Most blog-ers are strapped for time...Mojo Repair Shop

@Mojo Repair Shop: I'm really sorry to hear that you are going through hard times my friend. I am thankful that you gave us an update. I was beginning to worry about you.

Hopefully you remember me. This is Zer0_II from Digital Meltd0wn. I was just going through my blogroll and removing some of the blogs that hadn't posted in more than six months. Many of the people don't take the time to give their readers an explanation as to why they stopped posting, so I'm thankful that you were considerate enough to do so. Rather than remove your blog from the list, I'm simply going to tag it as being "On Hiatus." I hope that your situation improves soon. I wish you the best of luck. Take care.

Mojo: sorry to hear about your ilness; I hope you are doing well. I was going to ask for a re-post of leadbelly "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", but I imagine you have other concerns. Thanks for the blog.

MOJO, First:You ARe King.Second: vintagestandup appears to be no more, just an fyi as I saw it on your list of friends.Also, sorry about the recent health and computer problems.For me, one can cause the other.STAY STRONG MOJO